Microwave meat decontamination technology patent filed

Gyrotron Technology has filed a provisional patent application for its technology for decontaminating carcasses and other foodstuffs. The company said this technology was successfully tested on the laboratory scale and independently verified.

During those tests, heating the surface of meat for a small fraction of a second with a gyrotron, which is a very powerful source of high-frequency microwaves, reportedly cut the bacteria count on that surface by a factor of greater than 300,000, without compromising meat appearance.

Potential advantages of GYTI’s technology include a drastic decrease in bacteria count; an environmentally friendly process that would sharply reduce water consumption and eliminate the use of certain chemicals in existing decontamination processes; significant cost savings in the decontamination process; and prolonged shelf-life for raw meat.

“We are very pleased that we have an opportunity to help address a major public health concern and at the same time provide substantial commercial benefits to the meat industry,” said Dr Vlad Sklyar, president of GYTI. “Meat decontamination is a new and very large market opportunity for us. There are over 35 million head of beef slaughtered annually in the US alone, and many multiples of that globally.”
GYTI develops and markets unique industrial technologies to many industries, including glass, solar and semiconductor. Most of these utilize the gyrotron.